The Mysterious Caller ~ 23

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The next morning permeates the compound with a quiet calmness. Evangeline, after the intense lab meeting the night before, had been allocated a guest room conveniently close to the bedroom quarters for a night's rest. The dawn is accompanied by an unusual tranquility, a stark contrast to the previous day's chaos.

Natasha, the resident early riser, has already taken her place at the dining room table in the rec room. The rhythmic tapping of keys resonates as she diligently works on the laptop, the same one she and Stark utilized the day before in their attempt to thwart Ultron's initial plans. Some of the team members have already ventured out, resuming their search for the elusive AI.

Steve enters the communal space, immediately spotting Natasha. He heads straight to the kitchen, preparing a pot of coffee for himself. He offers her a cup, but she politely declines, engrossed in her task with unwavering focus.

"What are you working on, Nat?" Steve queries, settling on the opposite side of the dining table, his curiosity piqued as he observes her.

"I couldn't get much sleep last night," Natasha casually shrugs, sidestepping the details. Steve intuits there's more beneath the surface, but he refrains from prying. She continues, "Considering our lack of success in finding Ultron, I'm onto the next best thing... figuring out who Eva is." She explains, her focus firmly fixed on the screen.

Steve emits a small sigh, sipping his coffee, but nods nonetheless. "Any progress?" he asks, earning a heavier sigh from Romanoff as she finally lifts her gaze to meet his.

"No," she replies, rubbing the back of her neck. It's clear she's been immersed in this task for an extended period. "I can't find a single trace of Eva existing. It's driving me insane. No one is this untraceable. I'm not even this untraceable," she comments, a scowl forming on her brow.

"The reason Eva may be untraceable is likely due to her ability to make anyone forget who she is with just a couple of words and a look into their eyes," Wanda contributes her insights, joining the conversation as she approaches, mirroring Steve's move and heading straight for the coffee.

The silence grows tense, and Wanda settles next to Natasha, peering at the screen with a sense of fascination.

"I would be surprised if Evangeline is even her real name at this point," Natasha remarks, glancing between them with a defeated expression.

Peter bursts in with urgency, swinging in to hasten his final steps and landing near the table. Dressed in his usual attire, his wide-eyed gaze is framed by his adorned mask. Slightly out of breath and visibly flustered, he narrowly avoids landing on the table by mere inches. The trio watches his sudden entrance with perplexed expressions as he dusts himself down, trying to compose himself.

"Is she awake?" Peter eventually breathes out to the group, letting his hands fall to the table as he leans in.

"If you're talking about Eva, probably not," Steve replies, exchanging glances with the others, knowing they won't provide Parker with a straightforward answer. Peter sighs, relieved, and quickly settles into a nearby dining chair, pulling out a cell phone as he does.

"Good! I need to put this back before she notices. I woke up early to make sure," Peter rambles on, earning more baffled glances from the trio.

"Is that her phone?" Wanda questions, eyeing the device before turning her curious gaze to Peter. Steve recognizes it as Eva's phone right away, having had temporary ownership of it just a few hours ago. He reaches over the dining table to examine it further as Natasha, now fully interested, focuses her attention on Peter

"Well? Did you find anything?" Natasha demands, desperate for answers regarding the mind manipulator.

"Not really," Peter confesses with a small sigh, glancing between the three. He leans forward, resting his arms against the table with a thud. "Eva doesn't have much on that phone at all... Her only contacts are me, Steve, and some local pizza place a few blocks from here. She also has a hell of a lot of games on there..." He goes off on a tangent, and Natasha clicks her fingers to bring him back to the present.

"Peter!" she snaps, and his eyes dart to her, an apologetic look beneath his mask.

"I did that thing again, didn't I? When I talk too much..." Peter pauses for a response, receiving only three impatient looks. "So... yeah, as I was saying... Eva doesn't even have any social apps. But when I was going through her recent calls, there was an unknown number that called her about three weeks ago, twice!"

"That still doesn't give us much, Peter," Steve responds, his eyes focused on Eva's phone screen as he finds the call log, observing the two calls, one after the other, about three weeks ago from an unknown caller, just as Peter explained.

"Yes, but go and check her answering machine; that unknown number left a message for Eva," Peter adds, folding his arms, a hint of smugness in his demeanor at his detective work.

Steve complies with the instruction, casting a curious raised brow at the ladies. They only shrug, indicating that he should proceed. He dials the answering machine, putting it on loudspeaker so they can all hear. The caller speaks in French to Evangeline, and everyone looks to Steve as he carefully translates the audio file.

"Steve, what is he saying?" Wanda whispers, leaning forward to get his attention. He swats his hand lightly to suggest he's listening.

"He's telling Eva to 'come back'..." Steve begins, directly translating all he can. "Doesn't want things to get ugly... You're picking the wrong side, Eva... You can't live on the run for the rest of your life... We will find you, Eva." He relays to the team, taking snippets and translating them aloud into English. The voicemail ends, and silence falls, leaving the four of them uncertain about the implications of this new information from Eva's phone.

Evangeline and Scott stroll into the rec room, engaged in casual conversation side by side, clearly enjoying their morning chat. Wide-eyed, Peter snatches the phone from Steve before Eva notices and discreetly hides it in his lap under the dining table. He pulls off his mask to cover his hands, adding an extra layer of secrecy.

Upon seeing the group at the table, Eva comes to a curious stop, noticing the odd behavior. She frowns lightly and greets them, "Bonjour..."

"Bonjour, Eva..." Steve clears his throat, while the other three pretend to be engrossed in other activities.

She continues to frown, finding the atmosphere too strange to endure. She turns back to Scott at her side, who remains oblivious to the tension surrounding the room.

"Enchanté, Scott. I'm going to head off and figure out where the showers are around here, and hope that doesn't electrocute me in the process," Eva bids him a kind farewell, pulling the collared device still looped around her neck with a sarcastic smile.

Scott nods knowingly and in acceptance as she waves goodbye. He waves back cheerfully. Evangeline heads out, stepping backward to keep her steady gaze on the others as she backs into the hallway, still suspicious of their actions.

Now that Eva is out of sight, Peter is the only one who exhales deeply, relieved that he didn't get caught with her cell phone. Once the coast is clear, he pulls it back out, and Scott looks on, smiling. "That Eva is a hoot."

"She's a criminal," Wanda deadpans, not entirely impressed with Scott's sudden newfound friendship with her psychic counterpart. He laughs at this, shaking his head amusingly.

"I mean, weren't we all once upon a time..." He reminds the team of their past, each individual having been classified as a criminal at least once during their time as Avengers.

Scott's reminder hangs in the air, and the team shares a moment of reflection on their complex histories. The weight of their past actions, once considered criminal, lingers in the room. Peter, still holding Eva's phone, breaks the silence.

"Well, this mysterious call is a lead, right?" he suggests, trying to shift the focus back to the task at hand.

Wanda, though not entirely convinced by Scott's casual stance, acknowledges the point. "Yes, it's something. We need to find out more about this unknown caller and why they want Eva to come back."

Steve, thoughtful, adds, "And we can't ignore the fact that Ultron might be closing in on her as well. We need to act fast."

The group nods in agreement, a renewed sense of purpose settling in. As they delve into the unknown, the echoes of their own checkered pasts serve as a reminder that redemption, no matter how elusive, is always within reach.

𝙼𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚙𝚞𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 ~ Steve Rogers Where stories live. Discover now